Tawny-faced Gnatwren

Overview

The tawny-faced gnatwren, also known as the half-collared gnatwren, is a small bird species belonging to the family Polioptilidae. It is currently assessed as being of Least Concern by the IUCN, although some subspecies face threats from habitat loss.

Identification

• A small bird measuring 9 to 11 cm in length and weighing 10 to 14 g, with a rusty face, rufous crown, and a thin black stripe behind the eye in the nominate subspecies.
• A wide black malar stripe separates the face from the white throat and upper breast, which features thin black stripes; the back is brown and the underparts are gray.
• Males and females are alike in appearance.
• The song consists of a series of soft, clear, plaintive notes described as 'teeeeea' or 'teeeéuw', accompanied by a common nasal call sounding like 'nyeeeh' or 'nyaaah'.

Habitat

The tawny-faced gnatwren inhabits the lower strata of wet, humid, primary and secondary forest, typically found below 750 m elevation. Its range spans from southeastern Nicaragua through Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador to Peru and Bolivia, with one subspecies occurring in a much drier biome in central Colombia.

Diet

Its diet primarily consists of ants and other insects, along with spiders. It forages through foliage and leaf litter by hopping through undergrowth near the ground, regularly joining mixed-species foraging flocks but rarely following army ant swarms.

Did you know?

One subspecies, Microbates cinereiventris unicus, is known only from a single specimen collected in central Colombia between 1930 and 1943, living in a much drier biome than the species' usual habitat.